Abstract. This paper describes our experience in defining a suitable style, structure, content and set of features for the West Coast Route Modernisation (WCRM) Concept of Operations. The ability to capture the operational context of the future West Coast Main Line (WCML) railway is a critical integration activity, and key to the successful delivery of the WCRM, in particular as operational improvements contribute to a large part of the performance improvements on a railway. In the absence of guidance or standards for the production of operational concepts documents for a subject as vast and complex, we have applied rich traceability and requirements engineering best practice, with the aim to produce fit for purpose, clear and useable documentation. This paper also presents the relation between the Concept of Operations and the rest of the WCRM Systems Engineering activities, in particular its influence on the Systems Design Specification. It summarises the lessons learned and planned future developments
